Oregon football: For Ducks, it's the calm before the 'Natty' storm

Thomas Boyd/The OregonianChip Kelly will lead his No. 2 Ducks into the title game, but he won't be playing the underdog card.

If there can be business as usual for a team headed to its first national championship game, then that's the mode the Oregon Ducks found themselves in Sunday.

After a few media responsibilities, coach Chip Kelly and his assistants hit the recruiting trail, following a team viewing party for the BCS selection show at the Casanova Center. The mood was subdued.

"I mean, it wasn't like it was a surprise - we weren't on pins and needles waiting for the selection show to happen,'' Kelly said.

This was the calm before the storm. In the next five weeks, the drama will unfold, leading up to what surely will be an offensive crescendo in Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 10.

Both offenses are fast, play fast and score fast. Oregon and Auburn - both playing for the BCS title for the first time - average a combined 92 points. The game features two players (Auburn's Cam Newton and Oregon's LaMichael James) who could finish 1-2 in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Both teams are unbeaten. Auburn finished the season with six wins over current Top 25 teams (Oregon has one). The Ducks rocked opponents by an average of 49-18 (Auburn had four games decided by three points or fewer).

Both came out of nowhere, relatively. The Ducks were ranked No. 11 in the preseason, the Tigers at No. 22. Basically, nobody knew Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas would be this good; nobody knew Newton would be this great.

And it will be another installment of the SEC against the world. The conference that has reasserted itself as the best will be playing for a fifth consecutive BCS title.

There will be off-field drama, too. As good a running quarterback as Newton is, he won't be able to outrun the story of his NCAA-investigated recruitment.

"Everybody's excited just because how hard our players have worked,'' Kelly said. "Now you get to go out and challenge yourself one more time against the best football team in the country.''

Auburn is the best football team in the country, according to the final BCS standings and also the AP poll, whose voters warmed up to the Tigers in the end. Auburn received 36 first-place AP votes, to 23 for Oregon. But in the coaches' poll, the Ducks got 34 first-place votes to Auburn's 24.

The only effect all that has on the game in Glendale is which sideline of University of Phoenix Stadium the teams will occupy and which uniform - home or away - they wear.

That may slightly narrow the Ducks' options as far as uniforms - there were strong rumors about a new Nike creation to be unveiled in Glendale - but that's about it. Don't expect Kelly to take the underdog role.

"Our players would think I'm crazy if I start talking about underdogs now,'' said Kelly, whose team finished one yard behind Oklahoma State for the national lead in total offense. "We've never used that as motivation for us - never have, never will.''

That would qualify as an outside influence, something Kelly is fond of saying will not govern these Ducks. Oregon became two-time Pacific-10 Conference champions, in part, by eliminating distractions and buying in to Kelly's "Win The Day'' motto.

In the next five weeks, Kelly will spend much of his time convincing the nation of that. It started Sunday night with a conference call that turned out to be a ball of confusion - a caller placed the coaches on hold and they couldn't talk over the commercial, the host bailed, the call was scrapped and everybody had to call back in.

"One of the things we do is eliminate distractions, so this phone call is easy for us,'' Kelly said. "If this game's going to be as hard as this, we've got a lot of work ahead of us.''

Auburn coach Gene Chizik was on long enough to talk about how excited he and his team are to be in this game.

"You can coach your whole life and never be involved in one of these,'' Chizik said.

Kelly coached his whole life outside of the FBS until he arrived at Oregon in 2007 as offensive coordinator. Both coaches became head coach at their current schools last season.

There is legitimate respect, as Kelly called Auburn "one of the really, really innovative offenses out there,'' and referred to Newton as "the top football player in the country.''

Kelly said this at the airport, ready to go embark on a whirlwind recruiting trip that will take him to New York, Pittsburgh, Iowa, Arizona, Dallas, Atlanta and then Orlando for a postseason awards show.

Kelly will return for practice Saturday, the Ducks' first leading up to the championship game. Then, we can assume, it will be business as usual.